Constant hard drive activity?

Fred_G · May 1, 2007

Just noticed one of my folders, running Ubuntu 5.1 (upgrading to 6.06 LTS as I type). The hard drive activity light has been going crazy for the last hour or so. I have not been using the computer, except for folding. It also seems 'sluggish' lately, so evidently the CPU is doing something. I checked the System Monitor, well, not sure what to look for there.

I did see one thing odd, at least to me, gam_server would change from sleeping to uninteruptable every few seconds. Being unfamiliar with Linux, what should I look for if the update does not solve the issue.

The computer is an AMD Athlon 2800XP, Abit NF7-s mobo, 512megs of RAM, 80Gig hard drive, ATI 9800XT video. I don't think it is a hardware issue, but never hurts to post the specs... No problems or errors previously, and the computer 'seemed' much faster yesterday. Any ideas?

E

BoredOutOfMyMind · May 1, 2007

Fred_G said: ↑

Just noticed one of my folders, running Ubuntu 5.1 (upgrading to 6.06 LTS as I type). The hard drive activity light has been going crazy for the last hour or so. I have not been using the computer, except for folding. It also seems 'sluggish' lately, so evidently the CPU is doing something. I checked the System Monitor, well, not sure what to look for there.

I did see one thing odd, at least to me, gam_server would change from sleeping to uninteruptable every few seconds. Being unfamiliar with Linux, what should I look for if the update does not solve the issue.

The computer is an AMD Athlon 2800XP, Abit NF7-s mobo, 512megs of RAM, 80Gig hard drive, ATI 9800XT video. I don't think it is a hardware issue, but never hurts to post the specs... No problems or errors previously, and the computer 'seemed' much faster yesterday. Any ideas?

E
Click to expand...

Are you using Gnome or do you have a server installed with the folding software? Is the box used exclusive for folding?

Colemanguy · May 1, 2007

Folding writes data to the hard drive so its probably just folding. To check this, open a command prompt and type top -u youruser > activelist.txt then a few minutes later do control c to kill it, then attach the text file that was created, this will show the active processes.

Fred_G · May 1, 2007

Thanks for the replies! I like the new 6.06 look. Looks like the problem is more or less gone, the hard drive activity light only flashes every 3 to 4 secs now, not constant like it was.

BoredOut: yes I am using Gnome, this is just a basic install, I am running whatever the default is. This is just a folder that I have on my desk so I can try to learn some Linux.

Colemanguy: Took me a few times to figure out 'youruser' was supposed to be my user name!

Here is the stuff though.
[m(B[m(B 4831 eric 15 0 54152 15m 11m R 0.0 3.2 0:01.02 gnome-panel [m(B[39;49m
[m(B 4833 eric 15 0 97788 26m 19m S 0.0 5.3 0:02.08 nautilus [m(B[39;49m
[m(B 4838 eric 15 0 8484 3748 3004 S 0.0 0.7 0:00.02 gnome-vfs-daemo [m(B[39;49m
[m(B 4841 eric 16 0 17124 5264 3944 S 0.0 1.0 0:00.02 gnome-volume-ma [m(B[39;49m
[m(B[m(B 4845 eric 15 0 19064 10m 7676 R 0.0 2.0 0:00.18 update-notifier [m(B[39;49m
[m(B 4855 eric 16 0 37708 7904 6412 S 0.0 1.5 0:00.09 gnome-cups-icon [m(B[39;49m[6;1H[K[H[m(Btop - 20:00:19 up 15 min, 2 users, load average: 1.01, 0.92, 0.54[m(B[39;49m[K
Tasks:[m(B[39;49m[m(B 82 [m(B[39;49mtotal,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 2 [m(B[39;49mrunning,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 80 [m(B[39;49msleeping,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0 [m(B[39;49mstopped,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0 [m(B[39;49mzombie[m(B[39;49m[K
Cpu(s):[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49mus,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49msy,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 100.0% [m(B[39;49mni,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49mid,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49mwa,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49mhi,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49msi[m(B[39;49m[K
Mem: [m(B[39;49m[m(B 515940k [m(B[39;49mtotal,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 291416k [m(B[39;49mused,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 224524k [m(B[39;49mfree,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 8400k [m(B[39;49mbuffers[m(B[39;49m[K
Swap:[m(B[39;49m[m(B 1510068k [m(B[39;49mtotal,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0k [m(B[39;49mused,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 1510068k [m(B[39;49mfree,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 169136k [m(B[39;49mcached[m(B[39;49m[K
[6;1H
[7m PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND [m(B[39;49m[K
[m(B[m(B 5012 eric 39 19 18328 10m 1396 R 99.9 2.0 9:29.17 FahCore_78.exe [m(B[39;49m

[m(B 4831 eric 15 0 54152 15m 11m S 0.0 3.2 0:01.02 gnome-panel [m(B[39;49m

[m(B 4845 eric 15 0 19064 10m 7676 S 0.0 2.0 0:00.18 update-notifier [m(B[39;49m
[6;1H[K[H[m(Btop - 20:00:22 up 15 min, 2 users, load average: 1.01, 0.92, 0.54[m(B[39;49m[K
Tasks:[m(B[39;49m[m(B 82 [m(B[39;49mtotal,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 2 [m(B[39;49mrunning,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 80 [m(B[39;49msleeping,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0 [m(B[39;49mstopped,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0 [m(B[39;49mzombie[m(B[39;49m[K
Cpu(s):[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49mus,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49msy,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 99.0% [m(B[39;49mni,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49mid,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49mwa,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 1.0% [m(B[39;49mhi,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0.0% [m(B[39;49msi[m(B[39;49m[K
Mem: [m(B[39;49m[m(B 515940k [m(B[39;49mtotal,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 291416k [m(B[39;49mused,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 224524k [m(B[39;49mfree,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 8400k [m(B[39;49mbuffers[m(B[39;49m[K
Swap:[m(B[39;49m[m(B 1510068k [m(B[39;49mtotal,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 0k [m(B[39;49mused,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 1510068k [m(B[39;49mfree,[m(B[39;49m[m(B 169140k [m(B[39;49mcached[m(B[39;49m[K
[6;1H
[7m PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND [m(B[39;49m[K
[m(B[m(B 5012 eric 39 19 18328 10m 1396 R 99.9 2.0 9:32.17 FahCore_78.exe [m(B[39;49m

Linux is like a forein language to me. I like the WinXP! But my proverbial hat is off to the Linux folks who make the free OS, and people like yourselves that will take the time to help a Linux Noob! I think the true cost of Linux is the time it takes to try to learn it.

Thanks again.

E

Colemanguy · May 1, 2007

so for some reason unknown to me your thing looks like gibberish, but as far as i can tell everything looks fairly normally, don't see any odd processes, and folding uses the most resources as it should be.

Fred_G · May 1, 2007

Colemanguy said: ↑

so for some reason unknown to me your thing looks like gibberish, but as far as i can tell everything looks fairly normally, don't see any odd processes, and folding uses the most resources as it should be.
Click to expand...

You should see the original, the copy and paste is better. It has a bunch of half domino pieces all over... Not sure what is up with that, but it is up and folding, so looks like problem solved.

Thanks

E

Colemanguy · May 1, 2007

Yes learn to play with top, and ps, both are handy for running processes.

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Constant hard drive activity?

Fred_G Heat packin' geek

BoredOutOfMyMind Picabo, ICU

Colemanguy MajorGeek

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Colemanguy MajorGeek